Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1887-08-25
GET YOUR HAIR SINGED.
It's the Proper Thing if You Fear You are
Going to be Bald
Providence Journal.

1TOVlQ6nG0 journal.
ssNo. l, or No. 2?" asked the barber in
big downtown establishment as he pinned
the apron tight about the reporters neck
and the latter settled himself for a siege
of hair cutting. The reporter knew that
"No. 1, or No. q" applied to the patent
cutters that the BARRIERS use nowadays to
run over a mans head like lawn mower
over grass plat, instead of laboriously
plying the shears as in days of yore.
The patent clippers may be run faster
and do better work with less skill on the
part of the barber than the big shears,
aud their cold steel sides feel mighty good
lying mp against fellows head on hot
day. The sizes run from zero up four or
five numbers. Zero will take the hair off
about as close as a razor; Nos. 1 and 2
"cut a little longer" and SO on up to the
higher numbers, which furnish good re-
spectacle hair cut that a minister may
indulge in without fear of a pugilistic
crop. The reporter guessed that he'd
take No. 1.
"Criminal cut, eh?" said the barber,
cheerily, as he picked out one the little
moving machines from rack of half a
dozen.
81 wish I could get it singed off this
weather." returned the reporter, loosely.
Give heard they do that in some places,
and it must be mighty pleasant
eve do some smuggling here" said the
barber, as he began to NOW swath up
the back of the reporters head; "but not
exactly of that character"
"You SINCE you actually burn Off"
calculated the scribe, as his bump OF curl
osity became barred under the cool cutting
of the moving machine.
eyes, indeed. We burn off the hair to
preserve it and make it grow with fresh
vigor--just as farmers burn over field
to give their grass good start in the
spring. We don't burn the hair close
down, you know, but just SINCE the ends.
No, we can't burn over a bald head and
and start new hair any more than you
can burn over stretch of sand and start
grass; but where the hair shows signs of
thinning out, or a man is afraid that
sometime or other it will, then, after cut
ting the hair we just lift the locks up
with the comb, as we do In cutting with
the shears, and touch the ends with the
fire. What do we do with it? Why one
of those tapers in the long holder that
we light the gas with. The theory is, /
believe, although the boss might ex plain
1t clearer than [ can, that every hair is
made up of little elongated cells, and be-
tween the fbres of each hair are minute
spaces. These spaces you know are filed
with pigment in dark hair, or little air
bubbles in white hair. The life or sap of
the hair is In the cells. Moreover, each
hair naturally has point or tip that
seals up all It's little cells and pores. Now
when you cut hair you expose all these
little cells, just as when you cut off
flower you see all the capillary tubes of
the stem, and In some of them the sap
will stream out you know. Well, that
hair is wounded just as the stem of the
flower Is, and what is more, all its delicate
cells are exposed to the cold, and 1T is
likely that if that little hair catches cold
its root is benumbed and injured serious
ly, and the life of the hair is killed.
"Well, after cutting it off we SINCE it,
That seals it up just as doctor would
cauterlze wound or paste bit of plas-
ter over it, for that matter, and tips off
the han again. The exposed cells are
closed and protected. Why, we have
number of customers who always have
their hair singed after cutting, just as
regularly as they get it cut. They aren't
bald yet, and they don't want to be. Tell
you who they are? No, don't know as
would like to do that; they might object,
although, of course, it's nothing to make
any fuss about. But lots of prominent
men that come here have their hair singed
right along.
"We've been practicing it year or
more now, and have come to have a good
deal of faith in it, as oar customers have
also. I believe DR.. Brooks, the health
lift man, introduced it in this city, and
drew our attention to it, but maybe it was
some one else that has that honor. At
any rate, whoever twas, he saw it prac-
ticed in London and was stuck on it,
Here the barber thrust handglass in
front of the repo rter's face and asked
him if his head was shingled satisfac-
torily. "Shall I SINCE it over?" he de-
The reporter allowed that he should be
only too happy; but as he surveyed him
self in the glass he came to the conclu-
sion that 'sNo. 1" had done its work so
well that there wasn't anything but roots
left, which, rather than risk having fire
applied so close to his brain, he would
protect as far as possible with his hat.